Dodgers Take Step Backward

Chavez Ravine has been eerily quiet for many Octobers, so winning a June interleague series against the high-profile New York Yankees did wonders for the Dodgers’ self-esteem.

Of course, none of that mattered to the resurgent San Francisco Giants, who apparently remain the Dodgers’ biggest hurdle to a true return to glory.

The hot Giants kept the pressure on their rivals Monday night in a 3-2 victory that tightened things in the National League West.

The Giants took the opener of a key four-game series in front of a sellout crowd of 41,453 at SBC Park.

They scored the winning run on Cody Ransom’s two-out, bases-loaded, run-scoring single in the bottom of the ninth against Guillermo Mota after the Dodgers had tied the score in the top of the inning against closer Matt Herges.

With their seventh victory in eight games, the Giants (38-32) pulled within a half-game of the first-place Dodgers (37-30) in the division. As recently as May 17, the Giants trailed the Dodgers by eight games.

The Yankees are gone, but the Giants aren’t going anywhere.

“They’re a threat, they’re always a threat, and you can’t expect them to just go away,” Shawn Green said. “The last series ... it was big to win that series. It was exciting for everybody, for the fans and for us, but the biggest thing is to carry the momentum into this series. This week matters more.”

To the Giants as well.

“That’s a good win,” said San Francisco Manager Felipe Alou, whose team is 23-9 in its last 32 games. “It’s only worth one game, but it was a good one.”

Mota (3-2) struggled with his command after entering in the ninth and quickly getting two groundouts. Dustan Mohr singled to start the rally, and Mota walked pinch-hitter Damon Minor and Ray Durham.

Ransom ran for Deivi Cruz in the eighth and remained in the game at shortstop. He sent Mota’s first pitch up the middle to score Mohr with the winning run.

“I couldn’t throw a strike today,” Mota said. “I was all over the place, I didn’t have the command I usually have. Today was a bad day for me.”

The Dodgers tied the score in the ninth as Herges (4-2) suffered his fifth blown save in 23 chances.

Herges entered with two out in the eighth and struck out Juan Encarnacion to end the inning with a runner on first. After pinch-hitter Robin Ventura flied out to begin the ninth, Jason Grabowski singled while hitting for Darren Dreifort.

Dave Roberts ran for Grabowski and took second on a wild pitch with Cesar Izturis batting. Roberts advanced to third on Izturis’ grounder with Jayson Werth on deck.

Werth contributed his third hit of the game, sending a 1-and-1 pitch into left field to tie the score at 2-2. Herges then walked Milton Bradley, bringing up Shawn Green with two runners on.

Herges struck out Green to preserve the tie. Mota then relieved Dreifort, who got the final out in the eighth after the Dodgers squandered another strong outing from Odalis Perez, who pitched 7 2/3 innings.

Perez delivered his best start of the season April 16 in a 3-2 victory here, tossing a two-hitter with a season-high 10 strikeouts in eight innings.

Despite a 2.84 earned-run average, Perez is only 4-3 because of poor run support in 15 starts. The Dodgers definitely still have work to do.

“We just finished winning a big series against a very good team and didn’t have much time to relish it because of what looms here,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “This series has significance to it, no question about it.

“It’s by no means the end of the world for either club, regardless of outcome, because it is the month of June. However, it’s beginning to look more and more like something very similar.... And that is a season that is going to go down into the latter part of September.”